Turnovers … by Alan B. Gibson

Posted August 26, 2020 at 2:03 pm

Golf Boy 5G.psd

KHSAA says “let’s play”; Governor says not so fast

The strangeness of 2020 continues, especially around the world of high school sports in Kentucky.

There were more than 9,000 screens locked onto the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s special meeting last Thursday morning, as the Board of Control went through the paces of making a final determination as to whether fall sports, namely football and soccer, will be able to go ahead with its original COVID-19 altered schedule of beginning practice this week, on Monday, and then play games in September.

Grapevine talk was the Board of Control, at the urging of Governor Andy Beshear’s office, as well as the Kentucky Education Association, was going to fold and completely halt fall sports altogether, waiting instead to see what was going on this winter and perhaps moving some sports to a spring schedule.

What happened instead, as folks across Kentucky watched it all unfold via the Zoom app, was a back and forth that finally saw the majority of the members vote to go ahead with their original schedule and begin practice.

The later grapevine talk was that, after being pressured from parents of athletes across the state’s high schools, they opted to drop the decision back into the lap of the Governor – a decision that drew a wrinkled eyebrow and frowned expression that afternoon when Beshear took to the podium for his daily COVID-19 briefing.

The Governor said he was “surprised” at the actions of the KHSAA, but went on to note that it had only been a few hours since that action, and he was going to digest it for a while before taking any action of his own – one way or the other.

On Monday, just hours before most fall sports teams were to officially begin practice, Beshear apparently had digested enough when he basically said he was going to let the KHSAA decision stand, basically throwing the chance of things going bad wrong on down the line back into the laps of Commissioner Tackett and the KSHAA Board of Control.

“Let me start by saying we’re not going to overturn that decision, and it’s not because I think it’s a good decision or a wise decision,” the Governor said. “But if we’re going to defeat this virus, we need people other than me all over Kentucky taking responsibility to make good and wise decisions.”

So, bottom line, get ready sports fans, we’re going to have football in Clinton County this fall. At least, we’re going to start football this fall in Clinton County.

The season starts on the road September 11 with a trip to Berea, followed by the first home game on September 18 against Monroe County.

That first home game, of only three home games this year, by the way, will be Senior Night. I’m sure this was scheduled just in case the season gets cut short due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Smart move, I’m thinking.

We’ll see how this goes.

Golf continues and ‘oops’ on our part

Covering and photographing high school golf matches continued to be an enjoyable outing last week, especially considering that we have so many young athletes wearing the blue and white on the golf course.

So, setting the record right here, in a caption last week under one of the Golf Dawg photos, we misidentified a player in this photo.

The golfer featured here is actually sophomore Ryan Bair.

Sorry ‘bout that!